On shoe racks, project management tools, and the most expensive assumption in any organisation.
The Shoe Rack
My wife asked me to buy a shoe rack.
The porch was messy. Shoes scattered everywhere. Three people in the house — somehow the entrance looked like a pasar malam closing time.
Her solution: a drawer. Organised. Neat. Problem solved.
My response: we don’t need a drawer. We need a habit. Three people, a few pairs of shoes — just arrange them nicely when you come in.
She called me stingy.
I bought the IKEA drawer.
You already know what happened next.
The drawer sits there. Partially filled. More often than not — shoes still scattered outside. The drawer didn’t change anything. Because the drawer was never the problem.
The habit was the problem.
And you can’t buy a habit.
The Project Management Platform
I was working at a creative agency. Standard setup — everyone on the same project management platform. Files, briefs, client communications. All in one place. In theory.
I went on leave. Got a call from a colleague mid-holiday. They were looking for a client file. Couldn’t find it.
I told them — it’s on the platform. Everyone can see it.
Still couldn’t find it.
I came back from holiday. Senior manager pulled me aside. Asked where the file was.
We had a meeting. A briefing about how everyone had been using the platform wrong.
And here’s what came out of that meeting:
Most of the senior staff didn’t know how to use it properly either. The onboarding was brief. Surface level. Everyone assumed everyone else knew. Nobody did.
The platform existed. The behaviour never changed.
We had the tool. We never had the adoption.
The Government LinkedIn Initiative
A government agency wanted to amplify their voice on LinkedIn. Good idea. Real need.
The head of marketing subscribed to a content service. Built a plan — every department contributes content every month. Coordinated. Consistent. Strategic.
Month one — some content.
Month two — we managed to discuss content.
Month three onwards — silence. No response. Nobody showed up.
Not because the idea was wrong.
Because there was no stakeholder buy-in. One person’s vision. No shared ownership. No real commitment from the people who needed to make it work.
The subscription was paid. The behaviour never followed.
The Pattern
Three stories. Three different scales.
A RM200 IKEA drawer. A project management platform. A government LinkedIn strategy.
Same failure. Every time.
Product purchased. Behaviour unchanged.
Platform subscribed. Behaviour unchanged.
Initiative launched. Behaviour unchanged.
And in every case — the organisation or person who made the decision genuinely believed the purchase would solve the problem.
The drawer will organise us.
The platform will align us.
The subscription will activate us.
It never does. Not on its own.
Because in every case — the real problem wasn’t the product.
It was the behaviour underneath it.
And you cannot solve a behaviour problem with a purchase.
The Behavioural Tax
I call this the Behavioural Tax.
The cost every organisation pays — at every scale — when they assume a tool will change behaviour without doing the harder work of understanding the behaviour first.
It shows up as:
The shoe drawer nobody uses.
The project management platform with files nobody can find.
The LinkedIn strategy that died after month two because one person cared and everyone else had other priorities.
The eWallet downloaded for RM30 of free government credit — then never opened again.
The digital bank app installed during a pandemic — then abandoned when life returned to normal.
The Behavioural Tax is not always visible. It doesn’t always show up in a shutdown announcement or a C-suite exit.
Sometimes it shows up as a drawer sitting half-empty in your porch.
Sometimes it shows up as a senior manager asking where the file is — on a platform everyone has been subscribed to for two years.
The scale changes. The tax is the same.
What Actually Changes Behaviour
Not the tool. Not the platform. Not the subscription.
Three things change behaviour. And none of them can be purchased:
Habit — the repeated small decision, made consistently, until it becomes automatic. You can’t buy it. You build it. Slowly. With friction. With reminders. With the person in the house who keeps putting their shoes in the drawer until everyone else does too.
Buy-in — genuine shared ownership of the outcome. Not one person’s vision delegated to everyone else. Everyone’s problem, solved together. The LinkedIn initiative died because only one person wanted it badly enough.
Understanding — knowing why the behaviour needs to change before you ask for the change. The agency platform failed because nobody understood how to use it properly. The digital bank failed because nobody understood that downloading an eWallet for free money is not the same as trusting a bank with your savings.
The Honest Question
Before the next purchase. Before the next subscription. Before the next initiative launch:
What behaviour are we actually trying to change?
And have we done the harder work of understanding why that behaviour exists in the first place?
Because if you haven’t —
The drawer will arrive. The shoes will still be scattered.
And you’ll have paid the Behavioural Tax again.
Without even knowing it.
Clarity is the most underrated business investment. — Lokman S., BIKIN